captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the most wanted fugitive from novemeber's paris attacks is captured in a brussels shootout. then, the european union reaches a deal with turkey to stem the flow of refugees coming in by the thousands each day. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze the week's political news. and how a new feature film grapples with the moral dilemmas of drone warfare. >> the tiny drone flies through the window or door, and detonates right by your temple. i mean, it's very creepy, but there's no stopping it. >> woodruff: all that and more,

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and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a raid, a shootout, and five people in custody-- including the main suspect in the paris attacks. that chain of events played out late today in brussels, belgium. and when it was over, police proclaimed success after a four- month manhunt. the crack of gunfire in the city's molenbeek neighborhood, ended in the arrest that police had long sought. 26-year-old salah abdeslam was captured alive, but wounded in the leg during the shootout with police. belgium's prime minister made the formal announcement: >> ( translated ): i can tell you that we have arrested abdeslam as part of an operation linked to an investigation on the attacks in paris. and i want to warmly thank our

security forces. >> woodruff: meanwhile, helmeted police with riot shields cordoned off the area. and as darkness fell, at least one explosion lit up the site. french investigators say abdeslam was one of several attackers who carried out the paris rampage last november, targeting a rock concert, cafes, and a stadium. 130 people died that night, and hundreds more were wounded. it is believed abdeslam fled paris, slipped through a dragnet and escaped back to brussels, where the attacks had been planned. the islamic state group claimed responsibility for the massacre. most of the other suspects-- including one of abdeslam's brothers-- died that night or were killed later by police. today's raid gained momentum after belgian authorities raided this apartment in another brussels neighborhood on tuesday-- and found abdeslam's

fingerprints. a man believed to be one of his accomplices was killed there. two others fled the scene, one of whom now appears to have been abdeslam himself. french president francois hollande said this evening that the investigation of the paris attacks is not over. he said there will be more arrests. we will get the white house perspective on all of this, right after the news summary. the day's other major story also comes from brussels, where european leaders sealed a deal with turkey to stem the tide of migrants. it calls for sending back thousands who reach greece. the turkish coast guard also moved aggressively today to block migrant sailings-- nearly swamping one boat on the aegean sea. in all, some 1,700 people were detained. we will have a full report, later in the program. the corruption crisis that has engulfed brazil's government deepened again today.

riot police in sao paulo used water cannon and pepper spray to roust protesters-- ahead of a planned rally by government supporters. the protesters are demanding the ouster of president dilma rousseff. and in iraq, thousands marched on baghdad's government center, demanding reforms to end corruption there. riot police stood aside and let the demonstrators cut through a razor wire fence to get closer to the fortified "green zone." there, they put up tents and began a sit-in. >> ( translated ): we are staying here and will not pull back-- we will stay here, leaving our families and mothers, until the corrupters leave. are you listening to me? that's it. >> woodruff: the protesters are responding to a call for action from muqtada al-sadr, an influential shi-ite cleric. back in this country, a crack appeared in senate republican opposition to voting on merrick garland, the president's supreme court nominee.

illinois senator mark kirk said today that he's breaking with his party leaders. he said, "it's just man up and vote." kirk faces a difficult re-election fight in a democratic-leaning state. wall street kept its rally going today. the dow jones industrial average gained 120 points to close above 17,600. the nasdaq rose 20 points, and the s&p 500 added nine. the dow and the s&p are now back in positive territory for the year. and for the first time, a woman has been tapped to lead a u.s. military combat command. the pentagon says president obama will nominate air force general lori robinson to lead the u.s. "northern command." it oversees all military activities in north america. robinson is currently head of u.s. air forces in the pacific. and finally, if you had michigan state winning it all in college basketball's march madness, your

bracket is toast. a 15th seed-- middle tennessee state-- shocked the 2nd-seeded spartans today, 90-81, in the first round. it's one of the biggest upsets since they started seeding teams in 1985. still to come on the newshour: white house national security advisor susan rice on the paris attacker and the president's upcoming visit to cuba; what the european union migrant deal means for the migrants themselves; mark shields and david brooks analyze the "never trump" movement; a new movie on the complications of drone warfare, and much more. >> woodruff: president obama was briefed on today's arrests in brussels and spoke with the french and belgian leaders by phone.

we get the latest on that and look ahead to the president's historic trip to cuba-- with national security advisor, susan rice. welcome back to the program. susan rice, first of all, tell us about the u.s. role in helping the french and belgian authorities locate these people in brussels. >> well, judy, what needs to be said as the president did to the prime minister of belgium and the president of france, it's really the services of belgium and france that deserve the lion's share of the credit here and congratulations on a well-executed operation. this is their day. indeed, since the paris attacks, actually well before the paris attacks but especially after the paris attacks, the united states has stepped up its intelligence and law enforcement cooperation with our european partners, the french in particular but many other europeans as well, and we are sharing information and

supporting each other in ways that are unprecedented. i can't get into think specifics about this operation, and it's an ongoing investigation, as you understand, but i do think it's important to give the belgian and french authorities their due today. >> woodruff: how much of a threat from the islamic state does this take off the table? what does the u.s. now have less to worry about as a result of this, would you say? >> well, judy, obviously, this is a good development but is far from a turning point in the fight against i.s.i.l. we are engaged in a multi-facetted, comprehensive campaign to degrade and defeat i.s.i.l and have seen important progress but by no means can we look at today and say we've turned a corner. >> woodruff: i want to ask you about that because the president told jeffrey goldberg in a series with the atlantic that he doesn't see i.s.i.l as an existential threat to the united

states and it is reported it is said to the white house staff that people have to worry about falls in bathtubs and gun shootings than terrorists. >> what is an existential threat? that's something that can literally destroy our nation as we know it physically and otherwise, so i think that's a very veiled statement, but that does -- valid statement, but that doesn't mean i.s.i.l can't attack and do americans harm, whether abroad or at home and, obviously, we have every interest and the president is fully committed to doing all that we possibly can to defeat i.s.i.l because, like al quaida, it is a threat that we must guard against and that it can do real harm to americans and our allies, not to mention the countries in which it is rampaging. so we have every interest in putting all of our efforts and that of our coalition partners

behind the fight against i.s.i.l and americans should take that threat seriously, but we shouldn't overblow it and turned i.s.i.l into the equivalent of the soviet union at the height of the cold war, that is not a fair comparison. >> woodruff: let me turn the corner to cuba. the president is going to make this historic visit this weekend, the first visit by an american president there since calvicalvin coolidge. how close does the president want relation tons between the u.s. and cuba? >> it's not about how close. obviously, this is a very new diplomatic relationship, it's just begun in the last several months. normalization is at the early stages, and it's going to take time. there are real differences that we main between our governments and our systems and, so, we're not going to be best friends. that's not what we're talking about here. but it is about moving out of a 50-year failed policy that

yielded no change towards an era of engagement which we're confidenters over time will open up the society and cuba. but at the people-to-people level, we think there is a natural affinity between the people of cuba and the people of the united states. >> woodruff: speaking of what you just mentioned, what do you say who oppose this kind of normalization with cuba who say what's happened here is that the u.s. has given in, has made concessions on things like travel and trade, while the cubans have done almost nothing when it comes to human rights and democracy. in other words, that the u.s. has done more giving than the cubans. >> we would say, first of all, it is not a concession to allow u.s. businesses to operate and compete in cuba when our partners has been doing so for many years. it's not a concession for americans to travel. that is in our interest. our view is, rather than continue to do the same failed things over and over again and hope for a different result, instead, we should do what has worked in so many other contexts

around the world which is to give the cuban people an opportunity to engage with american ingenuity, american entrepreneurs, northwestern civil society leaders and so see through that engagement a future that they only themselves can bring to cuba over the long term. >> woodruff: president obama's national security advisor susan rice, we thank you. >> good to be with you, judy. >> woodruff: we return to the major european-turkish agreement on how to cope with the refugee crisis. jeffrey brown has the story. >> brown: under the deal agreed to today, turkey will take back syrian refugees now in greece; europe will accept some refugees now in turkey; and turkey will get financial aid and closer travel and political ties to europe. joining us from brussels: matthew karnitschnig, chief

europe correspondent for politico; and in copenhagen, the newshour's malcolm brabant. welcome to both of you. matthew, let me start with you. for europe the idea is fewer refugees and a more orderly process. how is this supposed to work? fill in the details a bit. >> well, at the core of this deal is this mechanism you mentioned whereby the turks will take back all syrian refugees who arrive in greece and in turn the europeans would take a certain number, one to one, essentially, of the syrian refugees now in turkey. now, the idea is this would undermine the smugglers' trade which is responsible for brig all these refugees in rubber rafts and so forth to greece at the moment and angela merkel and the other european leaders hope that this will convince syrians and other migrants not to come to europe in the first place, that they will see that it's pointless to try to come with the smugglers because they will

automatically be sent back. >> brown: but sending these people back stranded in greece raises enormous logistical and legal challenges, right? we've already had a lot of criticism on the legal side from amnesty international, the u.n. high commissioner for refugees, how hard will this be to do? >> this will be extremely difficult to implement, a logistical nightmare. trying to deport thousands of people will be a huge task that will create really ugly scenes because you have these people who have spent thousands of dollars getting to greece suddenly facing the prospect of being sent back. there will be fights and struggles going on in these various places. what's supposed to also happen is these people are also supposed to have their appeals for asylum being fast tracked and greece has not a dreadful reputation for trying to fast track anything, trying to determine whether or not somebody is a serious, justified asylum seeker is something that's supposed to happen almost

instantly. the h.d.r. is saying everybody has the right to appeal. i foresee chaos in the greek islands. >> brown: matthew, are there plans in the details what europe is planning to do to make the process work better and from the turkish side, what's in it for them? >> the europeans are saying greece, in the midst of this economic crisis, really an economic depression, is not going to be able to handle this problem alone. they don't have the administration to deal with this many refugees, so the brussels bureaucrats, if you will, are saying they will send down to up to 4,000 officials, judges, interpreters, and so forth, to deal with these processes that they need to introduce here in terms of dealing with the asylum applicants and ensuring they get a fair review of their case.

but to think this is going to happen within 48 hours, because they're also saying they want to introduce this program starting sunday, is somewhat ambitious, to put it mildly. so there is a lot of skepticism here in brussels and elsewhere in europe about whether this plan is going to be dead on arrival, essentially. what's in it for the turks is that the turks get visa liberalization, we're calling it, which means turkish citizens, if turkey meets a number of requirements in the coming months, we'll be able to travel into the e.u. without visas, which would be a huge political win for turkish president erdogan who has really been trying to show to his people that, despite all of the criticism of turkey and his rule in turkey, his increasingly aye authoritarian rule m people say, that they are still part of the west, that the west still

accepts them and takes them seriously. >> malcolm, you have reported from turkey. you have been talking to people there. is it likely that this would discourage people from making the trip at this point and what are you hearing from turkey now? >> well, i was talking to a refugees from what used to be the main smuggling zone and this was a town not only thriving with smugglers and refugees trying to get a deal to try to get across the aegean, but in the past couple of weeks the turks have cracked town, the smugglers have gone and the would-be asylum seekers are hiding in forests on the coast or safe houses. this is a multi-billion dollar business and smugglers won't take it lying down and will look for possible land routes through europe. but i have been talktology other people, for example refugees stuck in greece and one man in

particular that we've met before on the "newshour", he's a former n.a.t.o. employee from afghanistan, now, he's at the former athents airport along with -- athens airport along with other refugees. the one thing he's worried about is deportation. under this deal, he's not going to be deported, but he along with 50,000 other people are currently stranded in greece, nobody's certain what will happen for them, and greece could be a detention camp for these people though europe are saying some will be shared around other european countries but so far that is something that has not happened. >> brown: malcolm brabant and matthew karnitschnig, thank you very much. >> woodruff: and now, to politics. the rift in the republican party over donald trump shows no signs of mending. just today, former republican

presidential nominee mitt romney announced on social media that he will vote for senator ted cruz in the utah caucuses next tuesday. meanwhile, as donald trump marches closer to the 1,200-plus delegates needed to secure the party's nomination, some party operatives are scrambling for an alternative. on thursday, a group of conservative g.o.p. activists held a closed-door meeting here in washington, d.c., to discuss how to block trump from the nomination. here's erick erickson, one of the meeting's organizers, on "fox business news" thursday: >> the republicans, if they nominate donald trump, are going to nominate the only politician in america more unpopular and less trustworthy than hillary clinton. that's not where you start when you want to beat hillary clinton. but that's the reality of that with them, and i'm not going to play a part of it. >> woodruff: for his part, a trump policy advisor pushed back today with a warning for the republican party. here is what sam clovis had to say on cnn's "new day:"

>> i will tell you this, if the republican party comes into that convention, and jimmies the rules and takes away the will of the people, the will of the republicans and democrats and independents who voted for him, i will take off my credentials, i will leave the floor of that convention and i will leave the republican party forever. >> woodruff: and that brings us to the analysis of shields and brooks. that's syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. so, gentlemen, with that gentle note so end this week, david, where does the republican contest stand? >> i'm trembling at the loss of sam clovis from the ranks. trump is looking like the nominee. he had this great night. if he continues as we has been going right now, my upshot department reported he will get what he needs. so he's looking like he can get it. there are two ways he cannot get it. one maybe if kasich drops out, there are some polls that show if cruz is one on one he could

make inroads to trump. then behind the scenes, is some fiddling with the rules. i for one think they should do it. but one of the features to have the year is donald trump has a monopoly on audacity and the only one who takes actions. what's interesting with the republicans is with the exception of florida governor scott and chris christie, they're not liking trump. they're repulsed by the guy but they're sitting there like a psychologically depleted party. >> woodruff: so, mark, he just marches on to cleveland. >> he does. what conservative philosopher and columnist george will called the most gifted and diversified field of republican candidates since 1865 is now down essentially to two, to donald trump and ted cruz, the quintessential conservative who can not be nominated and who can not win, and that's where the

republicans are. donald trump, let it be said in his behalf, has won this nomination. i mean, the people who are trying to take it away from him have won nothing. i mean, john kasich has won one primary, half as many as marco rubio won, i think. so, i mean, you know, but he's won, and he's won everywhere. it's been across the board. it's been an open assault upon the establishment, and he has captured it. so i just think that, you know, lindsey graham, a man occasionally known for spreading the ugly truth, said it's a choice between cruz and trump is the choice between being poisoned and shot. i think that's the paralysis -- >> woodruff: and then he went on to choose cruz. >> he chose arsenic over -- yeah. >> woodruff: but if trump has won it, david, is there any -- is there any sign of republican,

i know you said he's not getting big endorsements, but are republicans not listening to voters? what's the big disconnect. >> in the big tuesday cates, 40% of voters said if trump were nominee, they'd consider a third party. that's serious defection. usually people are rallying at this point. secondly, there are a lot of republicans including myself who find him morally repulsive and there is more important things than winning an election, a guy to plays on bigotry and fear who is the sort of demagogue our founders feared would upset the american experiment in self government, that guy you can't support even if it means a defeat and i think a lot of republicans feel that way which is why you get 40% number of defectors. >> woodruff: are the two of you saying -- i know david said if something happened -- >> sure. >> woodruff: but, i mean, are you saying the odds are just very much against -- >> oh, i think momentum is with

him. i think the numbers are with him, judy. hasn't been totaled but a good bet is $20 million spent against donald trump in florida, $20 million in negative campaign ads that went from calling him, one secretive group associated with the koch brothers called him a wealthy draft dodger. they never used that term about dick cheney, but called trump university a scam and accused him of being an unprincipled person. and apparently, if anything, didn't lay a glove on him and if anything increased his numbers. i mean, he has a constituency that is indifferent to such charges. so i don't know what would be revealed. i mean, there is been enough already revealed about him and understood that would kill any other candidate.

>> woodruff: with that and with the talk about a contested convention or open convention, is there a scenario under which the people who voted for donald trump or his delegates would go along with some other plan, some other result at a convention? >> it's hard to imagine, unless there was something -- again, he's like rasputin. he doesn't go away. he doesn't die. unless somehow something came up we don't know about where they lost faith or heart. but at this point it's hard to see it. he looks very much like the nominee. and as mark said, we've treated this - as a crazy year. he's been ahead for eight months. it's a simple story line. that's been stable. we all expected him to explode. the only surprise is this has been so linear for him. >> yeah, there is always the block buster, the screenplay

that reveals something about him that he's got eight secret families or something of the sort. >> woodruff: somebody steps out from behind a curtain. >> yeah, but i just think everything is headed in his direction. >> woodruff: well, let's turn to the democrats. hillary clinton is way ahead, david, in terms of delegates, but -- and bernie sanders didn't win any primaries this week, but he's campaigning hard and says he's going all the way to philadelphia, to the democratic convention. i mean, what do we have here on the democratic side? >> i think the democratic side is even worse and shut down than the republican side. i think she's on a march and has nearly twice the delegates than he and she's been solid in her demographics. among young people, he's getting 80% in some states. amazing. among minorities, she's very solid. among middle class and moderate democratic voters she's very solid and holding her people. i think that's frustrated for

sanders. she's a fox, he's a hedge hog. she knows a lot of things, he knows one thing and keeps repeating it. he doesn't shift, he's just doing that thing, and that thing wins over a certain demographics, young people on the left but there is not enough of them to knock her off. so she's sitting pretty. >> woodruff: any way he could pull it off? >> two candidates in a race, yes, there is always a possibility. i recall rather vividly eight years ago when she was asked if she was going to get out and she said, no, anything can happen in a race when there is two people. bernie sanders has run an absolutely exceptional campaign and continues to do. so he has dominated -- as donald trump has dominated the dialogue and debate on the republican side and gotten the attention, he has totally dominated the debate on the democratic side. he has moved her on trade, on thet.t.p.

she's pledged to not touch a single hair on the grey head of social security. hat had been a democrat moderate position, new democrats that you had to limit entitlements. david's right, 80% of voters under age 30 supported him in several states, and he came back -- you know, i was thinking in massachusetts where, in 2008, barack obama had the support of governor duval patrick and ted kennedy and still lost by 15 points to hillary clinton. he almost beat her there. he's won a number of states and lies ahead, he's quite confident. so 4 million individual contributions. so he's given the party a lot of energy. i don't think he's got dreams he's going to be the nominee at this point, but i think he's leading a cause. >> woodruff: president obama's nominee to the supreme court to take the spot that justice

scalia -- the slate justice scalia had. david, merrick garland, what do you say about the choice? >> frankly, i think it's an excellent choice, a guy with an amazing temperament, the model of judicial restraint. he seems to be a man of both amazing integrity and capacity to be emotionally moved. so everything i hear about him is superlative. and if i'm a republican, frankly, running the senate, i think this is the best i'm going to get. if donald trump is down 15 points in the summer or fall, i would confirm this guy because hillary clinton, if she gets elected, who knows what the senate will be like, it will be from the republican view a lot worse. so i think republicans will say we'll take this guy because, from their point of view, he's a model of restraint. >> i agree and echo what david said about judge garland. judy, the knocks on him from the liberal side, a, he's a white male. you know, you have to have

somebody who's -- i don't know what -- biracial or something else. >> woodruff: but he's too much of a centrist. >> and he's 63 years old, which doesn't seem old at all to me. but the irony hereñr is i think the republicans have put themselves in a terrible position, i really do. i mean, before the body was cold of judge scalia, before the family had been told, mitch mcconnell tried to head off a charge from the conservative insurgents against the establishment that they weren't sufficiently conservative enough and they were going to earn that. basically, barack obama is the only president other than dwight eisenhower to win 51% twice of the popular vote and he got the second term. the 24 republican senators who are up for reelection this year should not vote on anything between now and november until the people have spoken. i mean, so i just really have

taken a terrible political position and i think it's increasingly unpopular and eventually unsustainable. >> woodruff: in their defense, the republicans are saying, david, well, but this is to replace antonin scalia who was standard bear, conservative for, what, 25 years on the court. >> but, yeah, i agree with mark filphilosophically. you were elected for four years and get to nominate for four years. some were nominated in a lame duck section. that's the constitutional historical pres precedent. politically, i can't imagine republicans will pay a price for it. i do not think a lot of voters are saying, oh, you've got to give this guy a hearing. i don't think it's a voting issue so i don't think republicans will be compelled to fold on this one. >> woodruff: does it matter with the court that it sits with eight members until whenever? >> yeah, of course. a closed mind is a terrible

thing to tamper with. (laughter) no, i mean, i think it puts people like kelly ayot in new hampshire, rob portman on the defensive. kirk has changed. i think it's states like that -- i mean, chuck grassley is looking like a tower of jell-o at this point. >> woodruff: on that note, mark shields, david brooks, thank you both. >> woodruff: a movie thriller-- being released nationally today-- delves into the practical, legal and moral issues surrounding drone warfare. jeffrey brown is back with that. >> what's the plan, captain? >> we need to put a hellfire through that roof right now. >> brown: it's a new kind of warfare: advanced technology that tracks, identifies, and has

the power to destroy enemies by remote control from thousands of miles away. but, as the film "eye in the sky" asks, should it be used? if so, when? especially if innocent lives may also be taken? >> harold, this is a very time- sensitive target. do i have authority to strike? >> the rules of engagement you're operating under only allow for a low collateral damage estimate. >> brown: the film follows british military commanders-- including helen mirren as colonel katherine powell, as they debate with cabinet officers and politicians over a strike against al shabob terrorists in nairobi, kenya, who appear to be on the verge of a suicide bombing. >> i told you , they came to witness a capture option. >> we no longer have a capture option. any action on the ground will lead to an armed confrontation which we will not be able to contain. >> brown: director gavin hood who joined us recently at the e street cinema in washington has the action play out in real time. >> we wanted to immerse the audience in a real operation and

we wanted the audience to feel as if they were participating in that operation. its a very strange world we're moving into, this world of drone warfare, automated warfare where our soldiers-- we're trying to take them off the battlefield in order to minimize our casualties. and yet the battlefield is still a very real place for those we target. and so the questions of when to target, who to target, what might the fallout blowback are not theoretical or touchy-feely, they matter. >> brown: the film presents a dramatic complication: a young girl who lives nearby sets up her bread stand just outside the targeted house. american drone pilot steve watts-- played by aaron paul-- sits far-away in a trailer in nevada and hesitates before launching his missile. >> you are clear to engage,

lieutenant. >> if we're going to confront this question, let's take it to the wire. i'm not going to let you off the hook. if the question is, "will you take an innocent life in order to save potentially more lives," let's really go to that place. >> brown: the obama administration has embraced the use of drones as an effective anti-terror weapon. just this month, the pentagon, citing self-defense and the defense of african allies, said it used drones and other aircraft to hit an ab-shabab training camp in somalia, killing about 150 fighters. pentagon officials said they did not believe there were any civilian casualties, but the claim could not be independently verified. we asked two drone warfare experts-- from opposing sides-- to watch the film and discuss it with us. noreen shah heads the security and human rights program of amnesty international u.s.a.

matt olsen has been in situations like those in the film as former director of the national counterterrorism center in the obama administration. there were two thumbs-up for the film as a tense, mostly realistic thriller, but continuing disagreement on the use of drones. >> what the film shows is the best case scenario, potentially, for the government, where we know who is inside a house that's being targeted. but in cases that amnesty international has documented, we would have real questions about whether the u.s. government had the advantage of the kind of facial recognition technology that appears to be in the film, the eyes on the ground, the ability to get an individual who might be killed, to try to get her away from the target strike area. and that's part of the problem actually, is that there's a novel technology out there and we as a public are swayed by that technology to think, "well, this is going to be a precise killing, this is going to be a clean kind of warfare, a kind of warfare that can be taken into cities," like we're seeing here in nairobi. and it's as though that excuses it from the kinds of laws and

kind of rules that we ordinarily apply to any kind of use of lethal force. >> brown: shrouded in secrecy by necessity? what's the response to that? >> i think the principle response is that the president and the administration have been quite open about the standards that apply to this type of lethal force. again, no strike can take place, as the president has said, unless several specific criteria are met. first that it's lawful, consistent with the laws of war, consistent with u.s. domestic law. that there is a basis to believe that the targets present an imminent threat to the lives of americans. and that capture is not possible. and then last, that no strike can take place unless there's near certainty that no innocent person will be harmed. as the president has acknowledged, innocent people have been killed in this war as in any war. but those standards are above and beyond what would be legally required under the laws of war. >> we have never seen the u.s. government acknowledge the killing of a yemeni or pakistani

or somali civilian, innocent life. there is zero acknowledgement of specific individuals. and so if we're to say that it's okay to kill people outside who are selling bread in nairobi, kenya, we're also saying it's okay to kill us right there in washington, d.c. if there's a people in a neighboring building who potentially pose some kind of threat. >> i think that's quite exaggerated, the idea that we would be at risk here in washington, d.c. the president has been very clear where the types of strikes that have been approved-- outside of areas of hostile battlefields, those have been approved under very circumscribed circumstances where again, we're at war with al qaeda, and associated forces. >> brown: in "eye in the sky", we see tiny "camera" drones-- some already on the market, says director gavin hood, others close behind. and soon, he adds, they'll do more than just capture high- definition images. >> instead of putting a hellfire

missile through the roof of a house where terrorists are holed up, the tiny drone flies through the window or door and detonates right by your temple. or it blows a little dose of anthrax in your nose as it flies by. i mean, it's very creepy but there's no stopping it. >> brown: such technological advances will no doubt only raise new challenges and debates. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: now, a newshour essay-- this month, many high school seniors have either just learned, or are anxiously waiting to hear, what colleges they might have gotten into. education advocate keith fromme has worked with students across the country, and believes the key to getting more kids to apply to college is peer

pressure. >> reporter: one summer weekend, i taught a small group of students from a low-income community how to write their personal statements for their college applications. each student would be the first in their families to apply to college and their ability to tell their stories was going to be critical to their success. during the three-day retreat, we used a variety of writing techniques to produce memorable, compelling and utterly authentic essays that i knew would stick in the minds of college admission officers. returning home, i felt quite satisfied, perhaps a little smugly so, with a job well done, and i proudly shared the compositions with my friends and family. one of the students, though, who wrote about his attempts to extricate himself from a neighborhood gang, did not share my sense of completion. though he had completed his college applications, his work was just beginning. he was on a mission. when he returned to school, he asked his principal to gather the entire senior class in the auditorium.

he proceeded to read his personal statement to them and said that if he could write this well, everyone else could do the same. he then led every senior, step by step, through the composition of their personal statements using the techniques he had learned in our weekend together. they started with a free write. they read these aloud. they listened to each other, noting moments of beauty and probing for more details and explanations. the principal called me later that week, astonished at what he had witnessed. my colleagues and i began to hear similar stories from other schools around the country. we began to understand that the most influential person to a 17-year-old is another 17-year- old and it struck us that this might be a key to solving a big problem. every year, there are 1.1 million low-income 8th graders in america's schools. 95% say they want to go to college, but only 9% of them will graduate by the time they are 24. in 1970, that figure was 6%. we have clearly not made much progress. many think that the solution is to bring complex and expensive interventions into schools. i say the students themselves-- with some training and

coaching-- can be organized into teams to work on behalf of the rest of their classmates. numerous studies demonstrate there are hundreds of urban or rural high schools around the country where i am privileged to watch students leading their classmates to college. i've seen students lock their fellow seniors in a gym until they have completed their state college applications. when college representatives refused to come to a high school, i saw a group of students themselves represent the colleges for the rest of the school in the cafeteria. in rural florida, i watched a team of juniors and seniors lead an assembly for 1,500 students like it was a revival meeting, exhorting the entire school to commit to going to college. peer leadership is a powerful force to behold, and it gets measurable results. in high schools where peer leader teams are deployed, we have seen students get more than 70% of their classmates apply to college resulting in increases of 20% or more in actual college

enrollment rates. we are entering an era in education reform that is calling for more collaboration among schools, unions and businesses so that all students succeed. that sounds good, but we will only witness more lackluster results unless we understand that students are partners too, who can help their peers achieve. i'm reminded of a high school senior named cornelius williams who had no intention of going to college. he had no adult role models who ever attended college and didn't see the value in it. one day he met ashley daniels, who had just been trained to be a peer leader. she nurtured and nagged cornelius through the entire application process. not only did he get in to college, after he graduated he volunteered with college summit, paying ashley's coaching forward to a new generation of students.

>> woodruff: we'll be back in just a moment. but first, take this time to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: for those stations still with us, we take a second look at a political rarity-- an expanding health program supported by both democrats and republicans. special correspondent cat wise reports. >> i have a book for you guys today. >> reporter: in aurora, colorado, registered nurse kimberly hirst is checking in on 19-year-old sinai herrera and her two-year-old son, caleb. >> one, two, buckle my shoe. >> reporter: the visits are part of a rapidly expanding program called the nurse family partnership. the partnership combines old- fashioned social services with

the latest brain science, all to help low-income first-time mothers and their children. >> time and time again, i see these young girls drop out of school, so they're at risk for that and living in poverty forever. >> reporter: the regular visits begin in pregnancy and continue until the children are two years old. nurses offer advice on health, parenting, and self-sufficiency. >> it's really so much more educational, rather than clinical. and so i feel like sometimes i'm, like, a life coach. >> reporter: improved outcomes, like a 48% reduction in child abuse and an 82% increased employment for mothers, have been so significant that congress recently voted to infuse home-visit programs with $800 million in new funding. but while the nurse family partnership is focused on health and poverty, another outcome is catching the attention of early learning experts.

kids from the program are showing up at school better prepared. david olds, the project's founder and a professor of pediatrics at the university of colorado's school of medicine, says the educational benefits are no surprise. nurse-visited mothers are spending more time talking to their babies, guiding them. >> where does the "a" go? >> "a" go right there. >> all of that earliest process that gets set in motion sets in motion a positive cycle of interaction that leads to significant reductions in children's behavioral problems when they enter school, significant improvements in their language development. >> reporter: on this day, hirst uses simple props to explain the importance of talking to caleb long before he can talk back. >> so, way before caleb could talk, he was learning how to talk by hearing you talk. all of these things were adding

to him having language. when you read to him every night, when you told him what things were, it bubbled over into language. >> baseball. >> a baseball? >> yes, baseball. >> yes, baseball. >> go-- it. >> go get it? go get the baseball? >> yes, get ball. >> it seems so simple, but if he only hears 500 words an hour verses 3,000 words an hour, it makes a huge difference and it's a lasting difference. >> reporter: clinical trials show a 50% reduction in language delays by age two and a 67% reduction in intellectual problems by age six. such results bolster a growing area of brain science that looks at a baby's early environment. here at the laboratories of cognitive neuroscience at boston's children's hospital, researchers are studying how a child's early learning experiences can shape their developing brain and impact

early learning. >> what many of us are starting to argue is that, to foster success as children make the transition to school, you need to invest in what's going on in those first few years. >> reporter: charles nelson is a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at harvard medical school. >> over those first few years, basically, the general architecture of the brain forms in a way that sets it up for the rest of your life. >> reporter: at the nelson lab, researchers use noninvasive sensors to pick up communication between brain cells. >> millions and millions and millions of brain connections are being built. and so as we build the scaffolding for subsequent learning in those first few years, that scaffolding enables learning that occurs over the lifespan. >> reporter: tell me what we're seeing here. >> so, we're doing is, we're presenting babies with images of different facial expressions. we want to determine, at what age are they able to discriminate different emotions? so the baby sees the different emotions by different people, and as they do that, each time the picture comes up, we're recording the brain activity,

>> reporter: nelson believes emotions play a big role in brain development. when parents are depressed, afraid, or stressed, their babies' brain development can suffer. >> if you look here, she's clearly happy, and she's clearly angry, and she's afraid. infants who are brought up in environments where they do not see happy, mom is depressed or there's something else going on the environment, respond very differently to facial emotion. development is seriously impacted. and, more importantly, if they don't get them in the first two or three years, development probably is derailed permanently. >> reporter: nelson says high- poverty homes, like the kind targeted in nurse family partnership, are vulnerable to stress, depression, and abuse. in these homes, he says, early intervention can make a big difference in brain development. when sinai herrera discovered her junior year of high school that she was pregnant, it was a

tough time for her. >> she was struggling with some depression and trying to figure out what her life was going to look like. >> reporter: hirst directed herrera into mental health counseling, and ultimately back to school. >> with that counseling, i know i'm a good mom now. >> reporter: the home visits are not cheap. each family-nurse two-year partnership costs on average $10,000. but a rand corporation analysis found the investment actually saves money. every dollar spent today prevents another $5 of social welfare spending in the future. >> this is work that is not just somebody's good idea, but has been developed and tested and re-tested using rigorous approaches. >> reporter: the nurse-family home visits have expanded to 43 states and recently became part of the obama administration's push for early learning initiatives. for the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise.

>> woodruff: and now for our "newshour shares," something that caught our eye that we thought might be of interest to you too. all eyes today were on "mr. president" and "the first lady" as they added a new member to the family. not the obamas, but rather, a pair of bald eagles nesting at the national arboretum in washington, d.c. a webcam captured the first of possibly two eaglets fully emerging from its egg this morning. biologists say the baby bald eagle-- known for now as "d.c.2"-- appears to be doing well and is already being fed. the second egg, which was laid a few days after its sibling, could hatch over the weekend. the two adult bald eagles are the first pair to nest at the

national arboretum since 1947. they successfully raised their first eaglet last summer. what can you say but aww. on the newshour online: what a trump presidency would mean for america's role in the world. chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner talked to u.s. diplomats, and foreign correspondents to get their unique take on the 2016 race. read about that on our home page, www.pbs.org/newshour. and, later this evening on "washington week," gwen ifill and her panelists will have more analysis and insight into the week's big news. here's a preview. >> ifill: what's not to like about merrick garland? senate republicans say it's not personal, but still they will not confirm this president's supreme court nominee. plus, why do john kasich, ted cruz and bernie sanders think they still have a chance? we explain the delegate math for both democrats and republicans, and what it means for the nominating conventions. or we'll try to. that's later tonight, on

"washington week." >> woodruff: on pbs newshour weekend saturday, from south africa, a look at efforts by the government to regulate the practice of traditional healing. and we'll be back, right here, on monday. we'll report on president obama's historic trip to havana and what it means for cuba and the u.s. that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fathom travel-- carnival corporation's small ship line. offering seven-day cruises to three cities in cuba. exploring the culture, cuisine and historic sites through its people. more at fathom.org. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future.

>> bnsf railway. >> genentech. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and hong kong tourism board. >> want to know hong kong's most romantic spots? i will show you. i love heading to repulse bay for an evening stroll. it's a perfect, stunning backdrop for making romantic moments utterly unforgettable.